Continuous assimilation into WRF model forecasts using satellite-based rainfall

Abstract

Data assimilations are performed every 3 hours on the weather research and forecasting (WRF) model’s mixing ratio based on difference between satellite-derived rainfall rates and the model’s precipitation. The effects of prolonged assimilations are examined for two case studies: 1) Habagat (August, 2012) and 2) Typhoon Sendong (December, 2011). For this study, TRMM was used for comparisons and the results show that improvements are noted during the first time step after assimilation and that assimilations during the first 6 hours show the most improvement towards the end of the forecast.